StoreKing’s plan to help more small-town people to shop online

BANGALORE, INDIA: Bangalore based startup, StoreKing, an e-commerce platform provider that enables rural customers to shop online has revealed its plan to expand the services to 100,000 stores in the next 12 months.

StoreKing leverages the use of modern low cost and low complexity technology, kiosks equipped with low-cost TV monitors and Android Tablets, to provide a simple self service shopping experience to small-town shoppers. It, at present, has 5000 kiosks across South India- Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, delivers over 100,000 orders every month.

The objective of StoreKing is to connect small town consumers to e-commerce and help them to shop-pay-collect from retailers in the same town. The simple model enables small town retailers to sell over 50,000 products to walk-in customers without having to invest working capital.

Conceptualized by Sridhar Gundaiah (Co-founder & CEO) and Govardhan Krishnappa (Co-Founder & VP), StoreKing was inspired by the incredible trust factor that is in play between villagers and their local retailers. This phenomenon was discovered during a project work that was undertaken in rural markets. Unlike other countries, 68% of India is still rural in nature, which is transitioning demand each day; StoreKing is currently reaching such places where e-commerce does not exist.

“The e-commerce market is 8 billion dollars and is estimated to grow much more in the years to come. In an era like this, people get things delivered at their doorstep with few clicks. This idea needs to reach out to rural India as well. With this expansion, we are looking at empowering the Rural India who do not have access to e-commerce and to provide them with the experience of hassle-free online shopping”, says Sridhar Gundaiah, Founder, StoreKing.